Spring Break Brings Projects

 Spring is in the air...and we're itching to get outside and work.

 

This week we started by cleaning up tumbleweeds and watching them burn.

 

 

Then we went upstairs and ripped out the carpet!  Yeah!  Matt was painting all weekend long and was glad to finally have the carpet out so he could finish painting. 

 

 

 

Then we watched the carpet burn!  We all wanted to see that happen!  :)  It had been in the house almost 34 years.

Then we went to the library to see if they had anything to read.

 



 

We met Harry Potter there...oh, wait...that is just Mason feeling

inspired by Harry's reading glasses.

 



 

The best part of the whole week for the kids...and the following week...

was getting to sleep in the family room.  It was one very long slumber party!  :)

 



 

Happy St. Paddy's Day

This year for St. Patrick's Day, we decided to go all out and try a traditional Irish meal.  I found some recipes on the internet and went to work.  We had Corned Beef with vegetables, Irish Soda Bread, and good ol' Gingerale. 

 

We also made sure we wore green (no pinching!) and the kids colored pictures of the rainbow and we ate treats from the pot of gold at the end.  It was a grand old time!

 

 

 

We completed the evening with watching some Irish dancing from the River Dancers. 

Mom's favorite! 

Willing Sacrifice

A dear friend called me the other day to ask how I was doing as the Bishop's wife.  I am grateful for her thoughtfulness in thinking of me.  She informed me of a poem printed in the December 2013 Ensign and said the poem make her think of me.  My heart was deeply touched as I read these words...

Willing Sacrifice

By Kerry Bennett

---

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A quiet knock comes at the door,

A contrite sinner ushered in.

One panged with sorrow and regrets

Yearns to abandon worldly chains

And free himself from Satan’s grasp.

A chosen man, ordained of God,

Listens to the heartfelt plea for

Deliverance and clemency.

He, like the Savior, longs to help

This wayward lamb rejoin the flock.

And while he serves, his helpmate waits

As Heaven heals a wounded soul.

Her offering—a patient heart

Unseen by everyone but Him

Who notices the widow’s mite.

My First Sacrament Meeting Talk by Carter

     This past week  I was asked to speak in church. My heart was racing, and I hadn't been preparing anything for the past week.

 

     Well, Sunday morning rolled around, and I had nothing prepared. I was running around trying to put a talk together. I finally chose a topic from the Duty To God Pamphlet. I chose Spiritual Strength. I noticed This is what I said in my talk...

 

     "I was asked to speak about a topic of my choice from the Young Men's Duty To God. I chose the topic Spiritual Strength, which is the first topic in the Duty To God.

 

     So a question I had was; How can I strengthen my Priesthood Power by having a strong spirit? Well, what do the scriptures say about this? I looked through the Scriptures and found Doctrine and Covenants section 121 verses 34-36. They state that men should not partake of  or get caught in the worldly things because only righteous men can have powerful priesthood, where as an unrighteous man cannot, and will not, have a powerful priesthood.

 

     Another question that I had was;  How can I gain the Spiritual Strength I need to stay on the path of righteousness? Well, I told my self,  I can pray daily (morning and night), and study the scriptures. I can use the Atonement for repentance so that I can live worthily. Gaining and growing a testimony can helped when faced with trials.

 

     I had a trial not too long ago that I would like to share, and how I dealt with it. I had been invited to one of my friend's birthday party. We played games, ate snacks, and did what you normally do at  birthday party. Later in the evening, after eating our dinner, we all piled downstairs on the couches to watch a movie. They got out this one movie and asked if everybody could watch it. It didn't look like one of those movies that a twelve year old should be watching, so I asked what it was rated, and they all replied," Oh it's just PG13," and explained what it was about. I didn't think it looked like a good move to watch, so I said that I would have to ask my mom first. They all laughed and said," Well, your mom's not here." I said that I'm not allowed to watch PG 13 movies, and they eventually put something else in.

 

     So, from this experience I know that if I had not been gaining my Spiritual Strength, I would not have said or done what I did. I know that Heavenly Father gave me the courage to stand up for what I knew to be true. I know that if we pray and study the scriptures daily we can strengthen our Spiritual Strength. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

No Sugar - Update

I have a very small part-time job on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a couple hours each day.  I work with my Aunt Kim Ward for a company called United Distributors.  I help with accounts payable and receivable on QuickBooks.  It is good brain food for me and I really enjoy the company.  Our boss Jeff Bulkley says we have Relief Society meetings when we are together.  (At one point she was the Relief Society President and I was the Young Women's President in our ward, so we did find occasion to counsel one another.) 

 

This was the place where I was first tempted by Chocolate Covered Cinnamon Bears after I gave up sugar.  I had been doing very well for the past 22 days...even lost a few pounds and an inch all over my body.  Today when I went in to work, I thought I arrived at Candy Land.  Jeff had spent a few days meeting with a bunch of men for a work conference and brought all the treats back to work...to haunt us.  There were big baskets full of every kind of candy variety you can think of...taffy, chocolate, gummies, a large tub of red vines, Almond Roca, and then I found this on my desk...

 

 

4 lbs of Jelly Belly's!

 

This is right behind Chocolate Covered Cinnamon Bears!

 

I just have to say...

 

NOT TEMPTED!

 

I didn't eat a single treat and the reason being reminds me of an old potato chip commercial -

You Can't Just Eat One!

 

As of today, I have lost 5.3 pounds and I feel so much better.  My head has stopped spinning and I have clear thoughts.  Someday I will eat a treat or two, but I don't have much of a desire at this point.  I have found the pure sweet joy in eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

 

Memaw's Plugged Ear

In the midst of Memaw's tooth problems, she had a plugged ear because of a cold she was fighting.  She had high hopes that doing this ancient wax removal ritual would help unplug her ear.  It didn't work, but we all had fun watching the flame melt the wax and pull ton of nasty earwax from her ear.  :)

Memaw's Pulled Tooth

Memaw had a crown put on a tooth a few months ago.  Something happened when she was eating a nut and it started to hurt.  Over the weekend she woke up and noticed the side of her mouth was swelling.  It kept getting tighter and bigger so on Monday morning she went to the dentist to see what was wrong.  The dentist said her tooth needed to be pulled so he sent her to an oral surgeon.  On Tuesday morning I had go with her to the dentist because they were going to sedate her and she needed a driver to bring her home.  We had no idea how this tooth extraction would completely take her out of commission for a couple of days.

 

When I went in to the room to bring her out, she was still sedated and seemed morphed into the chair.  Her mouth was sagging open and she looked like a little old lady deep in sleep, dreaming of meeting her maker.  I had to fight back the tears because she did not look like my 60 year old dragon-slaying mother.  The dental assistants seemed to be in a hurry to get her awake and out of the building.  Mom looked to me like she needed to sleep for a few days, but we worked and worked at waking her up.  We helped her into a wheelchair and took her out to the car.  In her sleepiness she told me to go get her coat.  On the way home, she continued to ask in between sleeping intervals, "How did I get to the car?" I answered honestly for a while reassuring her we pushed her in the wheelchair.  Then as she persisted in asking the same question over and over, I began to tell her things like, "You grew wings and flew" or "We rolled you right out of there."  Whatever I told her didn't seem to stick because she was really sleepy with sedation.  She became very nauseous and I thought for sure she was going to throw up in the car.  I had to stop at the church to driveway and parked the car, she wanted to sit in the car.  She was so drowsy that I really began to wonder how I was going to get her down the stairs and into her room.  I sent Matt a text to see if he could come home and help me.  He was in the middle of a meeting so I decided to hang out in the car with mom for as long as it took.  I layed her seat back and I started reading my book.  Then I wondered how long mom would really sleep and figured she needed good rest in her bed.  I told mom that we were going to have to get her up and get her downstairs to her bed.  She continually asked me, "How did I get to the car?"  She was not coherent with anything.  As I tried to set her up in the car, she said she was going to throw up.  I ran to the house to get a bucket.  When I came back outside, she had thrown up blood all over the concrete.  I cleaned her up and then grabbed her arm and told her we needed to get her into the house.  She was very weak and nauseous, but we finally got her into her bed.  I called the dental office to get some more information on her medicine and how much she needed to eat before she took the pills.  I fed her some yogurt, gave her the pills she needed and then started the 20 minute ice pack rotation.  This continued for the next 24 hours.  Thank goodness Josie came home from kindergarten soon so I could enlist her help.  She was quite the expert nurse by the time I had to leave to go pick up the other kids from school.  She was a little nervous at first being the sole caretaker of Memaw, but once I trained her and she was confident working the timer and her nursing responsibilities, she was fine.  While I was gone, Memaw called her to help give her a drink of water.  When she was done Memaw said, "Thank you nurse."  Josie said, "Just call me the doctor."  Josie was pretty confident with her abilities and she figured they were beyond nurse duties.  She had earned the title of doctor.  When the other kids returned home, Chloe and Mason joined in on the nurse/doctor duties and took turns timing the ice pack changes.  They had a walky-talky and when the timer would go off, they would say into the machine, "Memaw, it's time to take off your ice pack."  or "Memaw, it's time to put your ice pack back on."  These children are all very compassionate helpers and loved doing their duty. 

What a crazy couple of days!

 

Chihuahua Burritoes

So, as parents, we are always trying to teach our children to eat healthy.  Sometimes though, you just need something quick and fun.  Daddy came up with this great 

dinner that must go down in kid history. 

 

Chihuahua Burritos.

 

(This picture is before it gets all rolled up.)

 

Kids love them...

parents usually eat something else...

 

Chloe's Indian Diorama

Chloe has been studying Idaho History this year.  They are doing a unit on the indian tribes in Idaho.  There are 7 tribes and she was in a group that was studying the Shoshone Indians.  One day she came home and said her group put her in charge of coming up with a skit or song or something regarding the Shoshone to perform the next day.  My first thought was, "Why do our kids always come home with the responsibility of doing the group project?"  Well, we got to work thinking of ideas with very short notice, that she could teach her small group during a 10 minute recess.  We looked on youtube and watched a Shoshone War Dance.  PERFECT!  We grabbed an ice cream bucket and a wooden spoon, showed Chloe how to drum a simple rhythm, and demonstrated a two step dance.  I know there is more to the dance than meets the eye, but for 4th graders, we told her to just dance around pretending you are fighting in war. 

They should be good to go tomorrow!

 

This is her darling little diorama.  With Dad's help, you never get anything less than an art project!

 

Josie Reading to Daddy

Daddy needed a nap.  Josie needed to read.  Daddy fell asleep to Sam I Am.

 

Great job reading Josie!